By 1993, Full Moon Features was on a roll and had some of their biggest successes in their history. In addition to starting up many popular franchises, Full Moon launched Moonbeam Entertainment, a line of kids’ sci-fi/fantasy films. 1993 alone saw the release of Bloodstone: Subspecies II, Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, and Puppet Master 4 among others. They also had plenty of other movies in production, but many of them wouldn’t see a release until after 1993. While Charles Band oversaw the films as a producer, he only directed a few, oftentimes with his father Albert Band. Though credited as co-directors on Doctor Mordrid, Albert basically filled in for Charles since he was busy running the company. For their 1993 follow-up to 1989’s Robot Jox, it was originally a father-son project before Albert had to take over. Robot Wars was released direct-to-video in April 1993.

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Rating

Synopsis

In the year 2041, Earth has been divided into two factions: the North Hemi and the Eastern Alliance. With their declining economy, the North Hemi is making a deal to manufacture defensive robots for the Eastern Alliance. Dubbed “mini-megs”, they’re smaller versions of “mega-robots”, giant military robots now used for civilian transport, including the Mega-Robotic Assault System-2. Also known as the MRAS-2, the robot is piloted by Captain Drake (Don Michael Paul) and copilot Stumpy (James Staley). During a run, they’re attacked by terrorists called “Centros”, and Drake is ordered to attack by Chief Rooney (Peter Haskell). Rooney wants to impress Eastern Alliance General Wa-Lee (Danny Kamekona) and his aide Chou-Sing (Yuji Okumoto) to negotiate the deal. Meanwhile, Dr. Leda Fanning (Barbara Crampton) and her reporter friend Annie (Lisa Rinna) suspect that there’s more going on. Soon, Drake and Stumpy join and discover something sinister being planned.

 

Review

While not as action-packed as Robot Jox, Robot Wars is still a fairly entertaining low-budget sci-fi film that’s also short. Like Stuart Gordon’s film, one of the highlights here is the stop-motion animation by the late great David Allen. Admittedly, there are only two robots in the whole movie, and they don’t do much, but the stop-motion is impressive. While it may seem archaic by today’s standards, there’s a realness to them that can’t be replicated with CGI. Plot-wise, it shares some similarities with Stuart Gordon’s film, namely the opposing factions that are essentially East vs West. For a film that’s roughly 70 minutes in length, there’s a surprising amount of world-building that adds to the story. It almost makes you wish that they’d build on it further, but it’s more window dressing than anything else. Then again, Full Moon’s not really known for its deep stories.

Don Michael Paul makes for a fun lead, playing it as ridiculously cocky and arrogant as possible. Barbara Crampton has some decent chemistry with him, though their love story feels shoehorned in considering she initially hates him. It’s interesting to see Danny Kamekona play a bad guy considering his role in Robot Jox, where he was good. Though she isn’t given much to do, Lisa Rinna is incredibly gorgeous and makes for a good sidekick to Crampton. Additionally, some of the blue screen work is very noticeable and sticks out in a bad way. Also, there’s a sequence involving a 90s-style ghost town that’s clearly there so they wouldn’t have to build sets. Still, many of these points are mute since this is meant purely to show stop-motion robots fighting, which it delivers. Overall, Robot Wars is a fun movie that’s perfect for a Saturday afternoon.

 

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